07/09/2011

Welcome! It's been a while since I've had time to work on this blog--the "real job" kept getting in the way. I've been working on a sketch from a trillium photograph that I posted HERE several weeks ago, and I've learned a few things on this piece.

I don't like hard lines on white flowers. If I did it again, I might still use a gray multiliner for the perimeter lines, but I would leave off the internal lines. They distract me when I am shading, especially when I want to change my mind on something and am stuck with the original pen line.

Darker-valued greens can be almost as tricky to work with as reds. I think that the die particles in the darker greens must be larger, as the darker reds are. This means that you can't fiddle with several coats of color without risking that shiny build-up layer--the point of no more color adding.

I began with a pencil sketch from my photograph. (Click on any picture to see a larger version.) I was working in a Copic Sketch Book, the 5" x 12" one. And, yes, I should have left more room on the left. . . Also, if you compare this photograph to the one that I inserted in my previous post, it printed quite a bit darker in value and cooler in color temperature than it looks on screen.

Here I have inked with a Copic Gray Multiliner over the pencil lines that I wanted to keep. If you read my previous note about things I learned from this piece, you will realize that I wish I had left some of those lines un-inked. That's okay--experimenting and learning are all part of the process!

Pencil lines have been erased here, and I am ready for my Copic Sketch markers--the fun part! By the way, my two favorite erasers are a white rubber eraser (not a pink one, which can discolor the paper), and a gum eraser, the crumbly kind. A kneaded eraser (gray and malleable) works too. I generally use those for pencil pieces where I need to shape the eraser and pick out highlights from a pencilled area.

Here is what I have finished so far. I think that the lines around the white bloom would not bother me as much if I added background. Hmmmm. . .

These are the Copic Sketch markers that I have used so far--as many blue-violets as greens! The pale BV's were used on parts of the bloom, while the darker BV's were used to deepen shadows on the greenery.

The second bloom seemed more colorful to me than the first. Maybe I was just getting tired of playing with gray though. ;-)

These are the colors that I used in the bloom above.

Moving on down to the leaves: by this time I've spent at least three hours sketching and inking, and another six or seven rendering my image. I have to confess that my attention span gets s t r e t c h e d when a project takes me this long!

These are my leaf markers for the bottom leaves.

Woohoo--finally finished--or at least for now! I might like it better with some background, which would help with taking attention away from those stark lines in the white blooms, especially the top one. But for now, it stays. . .

Thank you for stopping by,

Debbie Olson

P.S. To anyone in the Green Bay, Madison, and Milwaukee areas, as well as the U.P. of Michigan: I have a Copic Intermediate Certification class scheduled for August 20 in Appleton, Wisconsin (about half an hour south of Green Bay). That class is filling slowly enough that it is likely to be cancelled unless some applications come in very soon. Any interest? Check <<HERE>> for details. Thanks!